Buried: A Tom Thorne Novel

Luke Mullen, 16-year-old son of a former, high-ranking police officer, has disappeared, presumed kidnapped. While no-one quite dares to voice the fear that he could also be presumed dead, Detective Inspector Tom Thorne is brought in to beef up the squad dedicated to locating the missing boy. The first thing the team looks for is anyone with a grudge against Luke's father, a man who'd put a lot of tough villains away in his time.

Rush of Blood

Perfect strangers. A perfect holiday. The perfect murder.... Three couples meet around the pool on their Florida holiday and become fast friends. But on their last night, their perfect holiday takes a tragic twist: the teenage daughter of another holidaymaker goes missing, and her body is later found floating in the mangroves. When the shocked couples return home, they remain in contact, and over the course of three increasingly fraught dinner parties they come to know one another better.

In the Dark

Theo Shirley is ready to move up. Now that he's sold enough drugs to support a girlfriend and a baby son, his mate Easy Dennison offers him a boost up the next rung of the ladder. As part of his initiation, Theo's taken out one night in a car without headlights. When the driver of a BMW flashes her lights at his car, he's ordered to shoot into her back seat, and his target, Sarah Ruston, runs her BMW into a bus stop.

The Memory Game

When a skeleton is unearthed in the Martellos' garden, Jane Martello is shocked to learn it's that of her childhood friend Natalie, who went missing 25 years ago. Encouraged by a therapist to recover lost memories, Jane hopes to find out what really took place when she was a child - and what happened to Natalie. But in learning the truth about her and Natalie's past, is Jane putting her own future at terrible risk?

Die of Shame

Full of betrayal, deceit and suspense, Die of Shame is the spectacular new book from number-one best seller Mark Billingham - author of Time of Death and In the Dark, both soon to be major BBC series. Every Monday evening six people gather in a smart North London house to talk about addiction. There they share their deepest secrets: stories of lies, regret and, above all, shame. Then one of them is killed - and it's clear one of the circle was responsible.

Something Wicked: Andrew Hunter, Book 1

Nicholas Carr disappeared on his 18th birthday and the world has moved on. His girlfriend has gone to university, his friends have got jobs, the police have other things to look into. But his father, Richard, is still stuck on the three fingers the police dug up from a sodden Manchester wood. What happened to Nicholas on the night he disappeared, and why did he never come home? Private investigator Andrew Hunter is Nicholas's last hope.

Knots and Crosses

'And in Edinburgh of all places. I mean, you never think of that sort of thing happening in Edinburgh, do you...?' 'That sort of thing' is the brutal abduction and murder of two young girls. And now a third is missing, presumably gone to the same sad end. Detective Sergeant John Rebus, smoking and drinking too much, his own young daughter spirited away south by his disenchanted wife, is one of many policemen hunting the killer.

Killing Hope: Gabe Quinn Thriller, Book 1

"Celebrity Cop" Gabe Quinn is back working Robbery-Homicide after a personal tragedy has left him emotionally bare. He's raw, but resolved to catch a serial killer stalking the streets of two major cities. With cryptic clues left at each crime scene, Gabe is faced with the seemingly impossible task of piecing together the bizarre puzzle - following signs that point toward a killer whose motive questions everything he believes in..."If you could save a million lives by taking one...would you?"

A Tapping at My Door

From the best-selling author of Cry Baby, the beginning of a brilliant and gripping police procedural series set in Liverpool, perfect for fans of Peter James and Mark Billingham. A woman at home in Liverpool is disturbed by a persistent tapping at her back door. She's disturbed to discover the culprit is a raven and tries to shoo it away. Which is when the killer strikes. DS Nathan Cody, still bearing the scars of an undercover mission that went horrifyingly wrong, is put on the case.

The One That Got Away

Graduate students Zoë and Holli only mean to blow off some steam on their road trip to Las Vegas. But something goes terribly wrong on their way home, and the last time Zoë sees her, Holli is in the clutches of a sadistic killer. Zoë flees with her life, changed forever.

The Murder Bag

Twenty years ago seven students became friends at their exclusive private school, Potter's Field. Now they have started dying in the most violent way imaginable. Detective Max Wolfe follows the bloody trail from the backstreets and bright lights of the city, to the darkest corners of the corridors of power. As the bodies pile up, Max finds he is fighting not only for justice, but for his own life....

Out Of Bounds

When a teenage joyrider crashes a stolen car and ends up in a coma, a routine DNA test reveals a connection to a twisted unsolved murder from 22 years before. Meanwhile, Karen Pirie finds herself irresistibly drawn into another mystery that she has no business investigating; a mystery that has its roots in a terrorist bombing two decades ago. And again, she finds that nothing is as it seems....

Chasing the Dead

Six years ago Alex Town went missing. One year ago his body was found. One month ago, his mother saw him on the street. One week ago, David Raker agreed to look for him. Now he wishes he hadn't. Missing persons investigator David Raker doesn't want the work: it's clearly a sad but hopeless case of mistaken identity but haunted by a loss of his own, Raker reluctantly agrees. Big mistake. For as he digs deeper, he discovers that Alex's life was not the innocent one his mother believed....

Locked In: Jessica Daniel, Book 1

When a body is found in a locked house, Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel is left to not only find the killer but discover how they got in and out. With little in the way of leads and a journalist who seems to know more about the case than she does, Jessica is already feeling the pressure - and that's before a second body shows up in identical circumstances to the first. How can a murderer get to victims in seemingly impossible situations and what, if anything, links the bodies?

Renegades

As a member of the Counter Terrorist Unit, Sean Doyle thought he'd seen it all. Every violent act, every depraved action man could perpetrate against man but he is to discover that there are much worse things in this world than even he has encountered. Tracking a group of renegade terrorists from London to the Republic of Ireland, Doyle and his partner must discover who is funding these men and why. What he discovers is beyond even his experience and threatens not just his life but his sanity too.

Natural Causes: An Inspector McLean Novel, Book 1

The unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of James Oswald's gripping new Inspector McLean crime thriller Natural Causes, read by the actor Ian Hanmore. A young girl's mutilated body is discovered in a sealed room. Her remains are carefully arranged, in what seems to have been a cruel and macabre ritual, which appears to have taken place over 60 years ago.For newly appointed Edinburgh Detective Inspector Tony McLean this baffling cold case ought to be a low priority - but he is haunted by the young victim and her grisly death.

Audible Editor Reviews

The Dying Hours by award-winning and best-selling crime thriller writer Mark Billingham is the latest addition to the highly acclaimed Tom Thorne audiobooks, narrated by the author. The world of Tom Thorne is bleak after a tough demotion from revered detective back to the desk. There's a string of suicides only Thorne believes to be sinister. The community and his colleagues have turned their back on him, so he sets out to secretly hunt the elusive killer. But without back up, Thorne could end up in grave danger. The tension and suspense is unimaginable as you devour this story. Available now from Audible.

Publisher's Summary

A cluster of suicides among the elderly. Such things are not unknown to the police and the deaths are quickly dismissed by the police as routine. Only one man is convinced that something more sinister is taking place. However, no one listens to Tom Thorne anymore. Having stepped out of line once too often, he's back in uniform and he hates it.

Patronised and abused by his new colleagues, Thorne's suspicions about the suicides are dismissed by the Murder Squad he was once part of and he is forced to investigate alone. Unable to trust anyone, Thorne must risk losing those closest to him. He must gamble with the lives of those targeted by a killer unlike any he has hunted before. A man with nothing to lose and a growing list of victims. A man with the power to make people take their own lives.

Tom Thorne returns in Billingham's most compelling thriller to date. The Dying Hours is a haunting portrait of London's dark heart, and the darker heart of a twisted killer bringing terror to its streets.

I have been waiting patiently (ish) for the next installment in the life of Tom Thorne. Having listened to all the previous books I feel I know him well and his hectic lifestyle and numerous problems! While I was initially worried the book was not to be narrated by Robert Glennister who is a fantastic narrator and by Mark himself, I need not have worried - Mark of course knows the book and the characters and the meanings as second nature after all he writes them and as Tom Thorne's voice - it is exactly as I remembered it by Robert.

The book is gripping, the plot is very varied and takes you through many emotions - sad, happy, cringing, angry etc etc..... I always have real empathy with Tom Thorne who means well , is a bit of a maveric ... and always gets himself into so much trouble in his personal and work life but with a good result overall.

Don't think I'd put this up as one of MB's best, but better than some. I wondered how Thorne would adapt to life in uniform, and this tale seemed true to the character built up over the series. Not sure I completely buy the Helen/Alfie connection yet.Mark Billingham's narration is very good - always nervous when an author reads their own work, but his characterisation works well.A good addition to the Thorne series - will look forward to finding out more about the 'cliff hanger' in the next book.

I'd enjoyed some of the author's earlier Tom Thorne novels but felt that this one wasn't as convincing. There's a series of elaborated-contrived murders as par for the course in detective fiction but I thought the author over-did Thorne as the maverick detective breaking all the rules. It's a well-worn scenario of detective fiction that the central character has just been demoted owing to transgressions against the rules and that he's at logger-heads with his bosses, but in the book Thorne's actions verged on the plain stupid. I didn't find the resolution satisfactory, nor, surprisingly the author's narration. In a an earlier recording I thought he was good but in this one he rushed some of the text as if he wanted to get it over with, particularly in the earlier parts of the book. He improved as the story progressed.

I have to say I was a bit sceptical at first about downloading a book narrated by the author without them being somebody 'famous' reading their own books or an autobiography. However, I'm glad to say that I thought Mark Billingham narrated this story perfectly. A well written story with subtle, believeable twists and turns, up to date and with good humour. I am rapidly becoming a Mark Billingham fan. Definitely recommend.

I am getting a bit tired of Tom Thorne's attitude and his arrogant and self centred behaviour. There was a good story line, but for me it was spoiled by the fact that I discovered that I really do not like the man. In previous Thorne novels I hadn't picked up on this quite so much!Narration pleasant - a couple of odd accents, but generally good.

When an author has a main character the books start to get a bit 'samey', padded out with situations from previous books. I thoroughly enjoyed the 'Dying Hours' it was crisp and slick, read by the author Mark Billingham, it is one of the best Tom Thorne books I have listened to, if not the best.

The main protagonist is an elderly man, not what you would usually expect, but the ways and means he has of disposing of his victims is to say the least, ingenious.

If you are already a Thorne or Billingham fan, you will enjoy this novel. However, this is not a book that I would recommend for a first timer because it is far from Billlingham's best work and does not do justice to his later more superior writing. Almost running parallel with the chronological development of his characters, Billingham develops and grows as a writer as the Thorne series continues; whether due to an increase in his confidence in his ability to spin a decent yarn, or a greater insight into his creations, Billingham's writing prowess hits new heights with each subsequent book to date. unfortunately, this is not one of his best.

I've read/listened to most of the Tom Thorn story's but this one wasn't his best, I didn't care about the characters and just listened to the story as it gave me something to do on the bus journey into work